Toria Hill - a little about me!

I wasn't an artist growing up; my brother was. As a young child, I remember watching him paint and going with him to the local library to check out books on his favorite artist (and now mine), Vincent Van Gogh. We would tear out the pictures of his work and line our bedroom walls with them. Some of my fondest memories as a teenager are of when my brother and I would sneak out of our rooms in the middle of the night and tag walls with stolen spray paint. I was always his helper, and I loved it. When my brother hit puberty, something happened to his happy personality, and he began a long battle with depression—a battle that he lost on October 8th, 1990. As you can imagine it devastated me. When he died, he left me all of his art supplies, but I was now suffering from my own depression, and so my parents boxed up the supplies and kept them for me in their garage.

 

In 2005, my parents passed away and that is when I found the boxes of supplies. I am sure you have heard that "ART HEALS." I opened up the box, poured out the supplies on the floor, and began to play with them. It made me feel closer to my brother, and so I found myself going back to the box day after day. My parents died within 30 days of each other and being the only child, I was left to sort through it all alone. I, once again, lost myself in depression, but when I found myself again—I was an artist. Playing with the art supplies had led to drawing and painting, and I discovered that maybe I had a little talent too.

 

I no longer paint to feel close to my brother—although I still do when I paint. But I began to think that if those colors could change my mood, maybe I could create pieces that did it for others too. A lifelong quest began. I found that the colors that enlivened me held power. I discovered that some colors (like Baker-Millers pink) actually changed brain chemistry, and so I have become a "color psychologist" in a way, searching for subject matter and colors that change the viewer for the better. That's my goal.

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Since these humble beginnings, I have won awards for my "HERO SERIES" during the pandemic, been accepted into Juried shows across the United States, sold works internationally and recently, I have been included in a book called " 50 ARTIST HOUSTON". Not too bad! 

 

Today, I live by the motto: "IF YOU WANT TO BE HAPPY—THEN BE!" And thanks to the gift my brother left me years ago—I AM.

 

Thanks for reading a little about me—Toria.